Saturday, August 14, 2010

How's that Transparency from the White House working for you?

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2010/08/13/reporters-visiting-wh-for-off-the-record-visit-work-for-pubs-that-demanded-transparency-during-bush-43/

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Classy Dems in NH

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12001934471337/nh-politicians-bash-sarah-palin-on-facebook/

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Start the Revolution! Government is out-of-touch with the People!

Glenn Beck is UNQUALIFIED to LEAD a Revolution!

I've had two of my busiest weeks in recent memory. So much so, that I
missed writing one essay last week, and resumed writing just
yesterday. During that busy time period, I watched about 1/4th of
each of Glenn Beck's TV programs, rather than my usual 75%. I kept
hearing mention of the 8/28 Washington Rally, but heard few if any
particulars. Beck had called attention to the fact 'his' rally had
reached the… 40 days-away point. "40 days" is significant,
Biblically.

Obviously, Beck sees 'power' in numbers, as evidenced by his failed
effort to get 56 "refounders" of our country. 56 is the number of
"founders" who had attended the Constitutional Convention. So, 56 is
associate with the writing of a NEW constitution. *** Beck has never
realized this fact: After 221 years, all that is needed to turn our
country around is, simply, to "found" another NEW Constitution! There
is no need for him to find the sought-after 56 "insiders" to reveal
the oh-my-gosh Washington corruption. There is only ONE refounder
needed to pen and polish a 'New Constitution of the United States of
America'. That person is yours truly! And my New Constitution, like
Ivory Soap, is "99 and 44/100% pure", or completed; "it floats!"

I was greatly disappointed to realize that Glenn Beck has gone-back-on-
his-word to "wear combat boots" until government is, once again, in
the hands of the People. Yesterday, Beck was wearing his most
childish 'black and white tennis shoes', while he discussed frugal
President Calvin Coolidge. Most of his TV viewers have probably
noticed that Beck has wide schizophrenic swings in personality,
including: whistle-blower, history teacher, philosopher, pacifist,
fatalist, alarmist, humorist, preacher, egotist and would-be savior of
this country. The latter role is Beck's most delusional. Though he
is frequently subject to attack by Obama and the CRIMINAL left, Beck
doesn't understand that his being right up there with Oprah in public
influence, does NOT qualify that man to lead a Revolution.

I was even MORE disappointed to learn that on 8/28 Beck will be…
'preaching' on the subject of "honor". He is adding "honor" to his
LAME "Faith, Hope, and Charity" mantra, which has absolutely ZERO
CHANCE OF INSPIRING THE WINNING OF A REVOLUTION!! "Honor" is a word
of SUBMISSION! I repeat: "Honor" is a word of SUBMISSION! Are
hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans expected to stand in the
broiling sun to hear a sermon on… "honor"? I certainly hope no one
will be going there just for that!

Throughout history, leaders have emerged because of the confidence the
people have in them. George Washington was able to command so well,
because his followers saw him as strong and properly motivated. In
Glenn Beck's case, his "authorization" to lead comes from his own ego,
or as he sometimes explains, from his (Oral-Roberts-like) message from
God to put his emphasis on… "Faith, Hope, and Charity." Beck says,
'Pray, Folks, and our government will magically get all better.'
Well, I say, "Bull Shit!"

Martin Luther King, Jr., wisely, chose to make the fight for civil
rights for Blacks "nonviolent". If Blacks had resorted to violence,
they would have been on the losing end. It's now apparent to me that
Glenn Beck wishes to emulate King. He has selected 8/28 to preach his
own PACIFIST, crying sermon. But there's a huge difference between
King's position representing the Black minority, and the Tea Party
position representing the clear MAJORITY!

When King spoke, Blacks had little power. He had to appeal to the
goodness in the hearts of whites and others. In contrast, anti-
government sentiment is shared by close to 70% of Americans, of all
races and groups. Such a number is more than enough to ratify my New
Constitution and thus kick-out all of the bastards! Glenn Beck,
wrongly, is identifying with and emulating those who did not have the
POWER. Actually, the People, collectively, HAVE the power to arrest
Pelosi and Reid on 8/28! *** If there is an obvious consensus among
the People for doing the right things, the Secret Service and the
Capital Police will not stand in the way. If they do so, those police
officers will be committing TREASON against the USA.

Dozens of movies have had themes in which corrupt police captains
expect the blind loyalty of their police employees. In the final face-
down between a good guy and a corrupt police captain, the latter
orders one of his employees to… shoot the good guy. After a fraught
pause, a gunshot rings out. The camera pans the floor to show the
corrupt police captain with a bullet hole through his head. When push-
comes-to-shove, honest police employees will side with the good guys,
not the bad. But because of the Spirit of the Corp, few police
employees want to be seen as the… 'first' to desert the command
hierarchy to be supportive of the good guys. Here is what my New
Constitution says:

"All local, state and federal officer holders and employees—upon
taking office or assuming employment—shall take the following oath:
"I, (Name), promise to serve and be deferential to the People, and to
be unbiased toward any group with a pro democracy, pro fairness
ideology. I swear to honor and uphold the full civil rights of the
citizens, as guaranteed by the Constitution, and I shall expect my
coworkers and superiors to do the same. I understand that my
employment in or by government is conditional upon my adherence to
this oath." No employee nor office holder shall be sanctioned for
making complaints against another office holder, employee or
superior. No government employee nor office holder shall be coerced
into wrongdoing, immoral action or non action, or illegality by a real
or implied threat of the loss of one's job, promotion or benefits, nor
by any bribe or promise of promotion or benefits. Making such a
threat, bribe or promise is a felony carrying a minimum ten year
prison sentence—and if part of a pattern—making such threats, bribes
or promises is treason. Acquiescing to such is a felony. Government
officials, agents or employees who become aware of corruption in
government or in any of its departments shall notify the Executive
Branch and the courts; willful failure to do so is a felony. With
impunity, a government officer(s) or employee(s) shall enforce no law
nor perform any order or directive which violates their personal moral
conscience or their oath."

In international dealings, such as in Afghanistan, our military
leaders fault telling the enemy 'when' we will withdraw the troops.
Talking a withdrawal date lets the enemy lay-low until our troops
leave, then, they take over, again. Similarly, by 'preaching'
"Honor" (submission) the criminals in Washington feel safe from the
'target practice' of concerned Americans. In fighting a revolution,
the ENEMY—Barack Obama and his TREASONOUS leftist cohorts—shouldn't be
allowed to get the idea that the hundreds of thousands of unhappy
Americans who attend the rallies are all pacifist wimps. Glenn Beck,
who has taken off his COMBAT BOOTS, is a God Damned Pacifist Wimp!
Don't pray for him, LAUGH him off of the podium!!

Concerned Americans please do this: *** If you plan to attend the 8/28
rally in Washington, take along dozens of yellow ribbons, about 8"
long, and dozens of small safety pins. Talk to those around you about
"refounding" America via ratifying my New Constitution. If those
people are open-minded or sympathetic, ask them to wear a single-
looped yellow ribbon pinned to their RIGHT upper shoulder. The more
yellow ribbons that show up in the crowd at the rally, the greater are
the chances that my New Constitution will be ratified soon.

ADDITIONALLY, if you are anywhere is the USA, and you have one of
those small American Flag lapel pins, clip the flags UPSIDE-DOWN to
your shirt or coat. Upside-down flags are an internationally-
recognized distress signal. And, man, is our country ever in
distress!

Remember this: Being Patriots, who fight to save our country, isn't a
crime. Nor is it a crime for Patriots to shoot and kill treasonous
outlaws wherever they be found. Be it known: No blood needs to be
shed, IF, as I have repeatedly asked, one or more state governors or
attorneys general will simply begin arresting leftist, socialist/
communist Democrats as soon as they set foot in those states! The
domino-effect of starting those arrests, will STOP our runaway
government in its tracks! And the governors can immediately appoint
new members of congress so that all needed government functions can
continue. Do the above, and socialism nor communism will ever raise
their ugly heads in this country, again!

I suggest that the following signs be waved at the 8/28 Washington
rally:

"ARREST the TREASONOUS BASTARDS!"

"Sarah Palin should do her target practice in Washington!"

"Use our COMBAT BOOTS to stamp-out Progressives!"

"Let us pray… and 'pass the ammunition'!"

"A 'New Constitution' or BUST! We're already BUSTED…"

"To win a Revolution, we must first RESOLVE to win!"

"Loyalty to the PEOPLE, or to the politicians? YOU decide."

"Cops who give aid and comfort to the ENEMY are guilty of treason."

"'I have a dream…' 'Fair play and democracy shall have supremacy in
the USA!'"

As always: "United we stand; divided we fall." May we all unite to
SAVE the USA!

Respectfully submitted,


— John A. Armistead — Patriot

AKA NoEinstein on Google's sci.physics news group

>
On Aug 13, 4:04 pm, NoEinstein <noeinst...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Cowards can't win our Revolution!
>
> In two weeks there will be a big rally in Washington on the
> anniversary of the historic and poignant Martin Luther King "I have a
> dream…" speech.  This time, the Lincoln Memorial and the adjacent mall
> areas have been reserved for Glenn Beck and for perhaps a million Tea-
> Party-sympathizing Americans who wish to win back the control of our
> runaway government.  Most of those people who attend the rally will be
> motivated to change government—not because of racial "hatred" for a
> just-happens-to-be Black "president"—but because of near total disdain
> for government over-spending, and for government's under-regard for
> the opinions of the voters.  Effectively, our runaway government is
> ENSLAVING generations of American's.  That's for paying-off the
> trillions of dollars of debt voted upon us by several hundred
> illegitimate, treasonous bastards in Washington.  Glenn Beck likes to
> call the latter "progressives", but I prefer to call them leftist
> socialist/communist Democrats, and crossover Republicans.
>
> A wonderful word like 'Progress' shouldn't be preempted by a group
> bent on destroying America.  Three decades or so ago, another
> wonderful word, 'gay', got preempted as a more 'socially acceptable'
> alternative to… homosexual.  The word 'gay' is associated with smiles;
> and smiles imply acceptance.  Jay Leno, and other comedians, also,
> associate gays with humor.  If people laugh, everything is OK; right?
> Since 'gays' are a large minority group, deserving of rights, then
> they should be entitled to have nuptial contracts just like
> 'straights'; right?  Yes.  But 'gays' should NOT be allowed to preempt
> another wonderful word: Marriage.  For centuries the latter word has
> been associated with heterosexuals bonding contractually, and in most
> cases, producing offspring.  The "contract" portion is fine, but the
> use by 'gays' of the word Marriage is unacceptable!  Here is what my
> New Constitution says:
>
> "Marriage (married) is a contractual heterosexual union; gaygement
> (gayged) is a contractual homosexual union."  With the latter
> distinction required by law, no married couple will have their sexual
> orientation be subject to question.  Nor should 'gays' wrongly be
> considered to be straight because they say they are married.  It's the
> WORD marriage that must not be corrupted.  Few fair-minded Americans
> would deny to anyone the right to have mates of their own choosing.
>
> Glenn Beck says he will keep wearing "combat boots" until government
> is back in the hands of the people.  A few weeks ago Beck acknowledged
> that we no longer have a "Republic" form of government, i.e., where
> elected officials carry out the Will of the People.  Progressives have
> taken-over our government and are working tirelessly to destroy
> America.  Any and all elected officials who have disregarded the Will
> of the People and worked tirelessly to destroy America—while at the
> same time enslaving tens of millions of Americans to pay-off debt they
> never wished to be saddled with—are guilty of capital TREASON!  ***
> Simply by starting to arrest those anti-Constitution squatters in
> public offices in Washington, the stage will have been set to reverse
> every single "law" supposedly enacted by Barack Obama and his criminal
> band of 'progressive' congressmen.  Folks, please realize this fact:
> Electing more "good people" in government won't automatically reverse
> the "laws" enacted during the Obama administration.  The guillotine
> was a cure in France's revolution.  Similarly, the gallows can be our
> cure in the present Revolution.
>
> Last night, Juan Williams of NPR, who is a frequent guest on Fox News
> Network, substituted for Bill O'Reilly.  That show ran a video of a
> political ad made by the son of former V. Pres., Dan Quail.  The
> younger Quail, apparently, is running for a US senate seat for
> Arizona.  He was shown in unflattering dim lighting explaining how
> Barack Obama "is the worst President in US history."  Juan Williams
> was pleasantly incredulous that Obama is the worst.  But how can Obama
> not be?  He has pushed this country way over-our-heads in debt;
> expanded government to the detriment of our survival; and bribed tens
> of millions of Americans into, supposedly, voting for progressives in
> 2010, and for him in 2012, all without ever considering the
> consequences of his actions.  Obama's latest BRIBES will have the
> federal government paying tens of billions of dollars of must-be-spent
> money to the states to prevent the layoff of a single teacher, police
> officer or firefighter.  Effectively, Barack Obama—THE most hurtful
> man to our nation, ever—is enslaving generations of Americans, of all
> races, to guarantee that no government can ever be downsized, and made
> efficient.  Obama's theory is: Give enough people… "entitlements" and
> they will keep voting TREASONOUS Democrats back into office.  It's
> apparent that Barack Obama is fulfilling "Atlas Shrugged" single
> handedly.
>
> Where is 'The Lone Ranger' when we need him?  Where is that one person
> who stands for fairness and for justice who will do the prudent and
> most expedient things to make our country better?  I've "only" penned
> and polished a New Constitution for the United States over the past 15
> years.  I'm not a celebrity nor a public figure who can spark the
> needed change simply by calling the progressives in Washington
> TREASONOUS criminals, who should be arrested, tried and hanged!  If
> revolutions need bodies, let the bodies be those of Barack Obama, his
> advisors and henchmen, and his congressional hey-boys like Charles
> Rangel.  At Rangel's 80th birthday celebration, he was as carefree as
> a kid.  And why not?  The Rev. Al Sharpton considers Rangel to be an
> OK guy, simply because Rangel has done numbers of good things for
> Blacks in the past.  The message: Do "good" things, and Blacks, at
> least, are willing to 'overlook' the bad.  A jury of Rangel's peers
> (Blacks) would… certainly get him off scot-free.  Bet on it.
>
> I suggest that the following signs be waved at the 8/28 Washington
> rally:
>
> "ARREST the TREASONOUS BASTARDS!"
>
> "Sarah Palin should do her target practice in Washington!"
>
> "Use COMBAT BOOTS to stamp-out Progressives!"
>
> "Let us pray… and 'pass the ammunition'!"
>
> "A 'New Constitution' or BUST!  We're already BUSTED…"
>
> "To win a Revolution, we must first RESOLVE to win!"
>
> "Loyalty to the PEOPLE, or to the politicians?  YOU decide."
>
> "Cops who give aid and comfort to the ENEMY are guilty of treason."
>
> "'I have a dream…' 'Fair play and democracy shall have supremacy in
> the USA!'"
>
> In addition to signs such as the above, I recommend that those of you
> who will ***pin a small yellow ribbon to your right shoulder (not your
> left shoulder!).  Yellow ribbons will show that the wearer considers
> the decline in our government to be justification for the "instant
> fix" that my New Constitution can provide following its ratification.
>
> "United we stand; divided we fall."  May we all unite to SAVE the USA!
>
>   Respectfully submitted,
>
> — John A. Armistead —  Patriot
>
> AKA NoEinstein on Google's sci.physics news group
>
>
>
> On Jul 31, 1:01 pm, NoEinstein <noeinst...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Masochists can't win our Revolution!
>
> > Arizona Governor Jan Brewer expresses resolve to take her state's
> > immigration law issues all the way to the Supreme Court to get…
> > justice.  This week, such justice was denied by a lower court on the
> > grounds that the Federal Government preempts the states on laws
> > regarding our national borders.  Commentators believe that such ruling
> > was a victory for the White House—a victory to continue to do nothing
> > to secure our border with Mexico.
>
> > The White House sees illegal Hispanics as potential voters, who, if
> > given amnesty, will tip-the-scales to allow leftist, socialist/
> > communist Democrats to win the war to control the future of the USA.
> > I'm pleased that dozens of states, besides Arizona, are taking up the
> > cause of demanding that our borders be secured.  Nebraska was one of
> > the first to publicly support Arizona.  Because Nebraska is a farming
> > state, thousands of illegals work in the fields, there, doing jobs
> > that out-of-work citizens need in these depressed economic times.
>
> > While there may be perceived strength in the growing support for
> > Arizona regarding illegal immigration, there is little actual value in
> > having unity on that or any issue.  That's because we no longer have a
> > Representative Republic in this country, as our Founding Fathers
> > mandated in the Constitution.  The White House—with its czars and
> > executive orders—is effectively controlling everything, without the
> > voters having any say-so.  Polls show that from 52% to 65% of
> > Americans believe our government is a failure.  Only 20% still have
> > confidence in the US Congress.  Folks, those numbers show that we have
> > passed the threshold necessary for this country to kick-the-rascals-
> > out.  But we should do so, not by winning any more impotent elections,
> > but because the offenses of every single elected official who has
> > voted to destroy the USA are criminal and TREASON!
>
> > Gov. Jan Brewer mentions a WEB site where contributions can be made to
> > a fund to aid Arizona in preparing their legal arguments.  That money
> > will go to god-damned lawyers to "fight"  for justice.  In the USA our
> > tolerance for anything done by lawyers always borders on masochism.
> > Obviously, we must love the P A I N.  Governor Brewer sure loves pain
> > of any kind. *** The legal authority of the Federal Government over
> > the people, as well as the authority of the entire
>
> ...
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

**JP** Indian Violence continues to plague Kashmir


Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:58:54 GMT

Paramilitary troops stepped up a curfew in Srinagar on Saturday.
Fresh clashes between government forces and protesters have left several people injured in Indian-administered Kashmir as a new wave of violence sweeps the valley. 

Security sources said hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest strict curfews in the Muslim-majority region. 

Police used teargas and live ammunition to disperse the stone-throwing demonstrators. 

"At least 20 protesters and 10 policemen were injured in clashes in more than two dozen locations across Kashmir," AFP quoted a regional police officer as saying. 

The violence comes a day after government troops opened fire on protesters in the troubled valley, killing at least four demonstrators. 

The killings came as Kashmiris marked the first Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Police have expanded a curfew and imposed security restrictions in the region's main city and summer capital, Srinagar. 

"We have enforced a curfew across Srinagar to maintain law and order," said chief district magistrate Meraj Kakroo. 

Police sources said the curfew had been extended to other parts of the Himalayan region as well. 

The unrest also comes as India prepares to mark the country's 64th Independence Day on August 15, the day which separatist leaders observe as "Black Day." 

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a Muslim cleric and an influential moderate separatist, has led thousands of Srinagar residents to protest against Indian rule. 

"The protests will continue until India withdraws troops from civilian areas, repeals tough security laws, releases all the prisoners and ends human rights violations in Kashmir," Farooq said. 

At least 55 people have lost their lives in clashes with Indian forces over the past two months. Most of the protesters killed have been young men. 

Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 60 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim the region in full but have partial control over it. 


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "JoinPakistan" group.
You all are invited to come and share your information with other group members.
To post to this group, send email to joinpakistan@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com.pk/group/joinpakistan?hl=en?hl=en
You can also visit our blog site : www.joinpakistan.blogspot.com &
on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Join-Pakistan/125610937483197

Must be nice - wonder what the pension really is?

The Obvious Message of Jerry Brown’s Pension

Posted By Roger L Simon On August 13, 2010 @ 2:46 pm In Uncategorized | 50 Comments

A kerfuffle surrounding a clandestine Jerry Brown pension is generating a lot of Drudge action on this lazy August Friday. Servers at the Watchdog blog [1] of the Orange Country Register that broke the story are bogging down. Keep clicking on it. The report is amusing. In fact, it’s a bit more than that….

It seems California’s one-time and now aspiring governor Jerry Brown has been drawing down a healthy pension from the state — perhaps double-dipping — causing a mild embarrassment to Jerry that could grow into something more than mild. At the moment he is locked in a tight race with Meg Whitman.

What’s troubling in all this is not that Brown makes a good pension — or even than there may be some discrepancy about how much he makes versus how much he deserves. It is that the whole thing is SECRET! (rare use of caps and exclam very deliberate).

Let’s think this through for half a second. At a time when pension funds are bankrupting or potentially bankrupting states all across the country, when aging populations are forcing the reconsideration of all sorts of social security programs on practically every country on Earth (countries that have them, anyway), and when the state of California — the sixth, or is it seventh, biggest economy in the world — is about to, once again, pay its employees with vouchers because it’s got zippity-do-dah in the bank, some officials of that state are receiving pensions whose size and identity we do not know and are not allowed to see.

Yes, there are secret state pensions in California. (Sounds like Novosibirsk, doesn’t it?) And we the citizens of that state are paying for them!

There is only word for this: criminal.

This mysterious fund whose beneficiaries you are not allowed to know about (even though you are paying for them) is called the Legislators’ Retirement System [2]. It was supposed to have been reformed, but evidently it wasn’t. Who’s responsible for that little oversight, I’d like to know.

If Jerry Brown were a public official worth re-electing, not only would he completely disclose everything about his pension at this point, he would also call for a new law that makes all — and I mean all — publicly-financed pensions totally transparent.

We’re paying for them. We have a right to know who is getting them and how much they are getting. It’s so laughably obvious, it’s astounding there isn’t such an ironclad law already.

It will be interesting to see if Jerry does this. Although a cool guy on the surface, with all the best Zen moves of an aging-Boomer, in the crunch he has almost always shown himself to be a coward and to behave and act in the tradition of the hack liberal pol, pandering to interest groups and preserving the status quo ante.

Only in this case the status quo ante is a disaster. I am reminded of the lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s classic “Do Re Mi”:

California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi.

Well, right now most of us don’t got the do re mi, not just those poor migrants Woody was writing about. The whole state is on the brink of collapse — from the redwood forests to the Whiskey a Go Go. Pension transparency is just the tip of the iceberg of what needs to be reformed. But pension transparency is a good place to start, because if we are to avoid permanent bankruptcy, a number of these pensions are going to have to be cut substantially. There’s no other way I can think of.


Article printed from Roger L. Simon: http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2010/08/13/the-obvious-message-of-jerry-browns-pension/

URLs in this post:

[1] Watchdog blog : http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/08/13/the-mystery-of-jerry-browns-pension/62501/

[2] Legislators’ Retirement System: http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/benefits-overview/retirement/lrs-benefits.xml

Copyright © 2010 Pajamas Media. All rights reserved.

Attention Google Moonbats…


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

New Apple "i" product a hit with the men


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The two lead editorials from the Boston Globe today - about immigration fears and reform

Are these people for real???


http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/08/14/dont_amend_the_constitution_to_allay_immigration_fears_/


http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/08/14/and_avoid_crackpot_theories_too/

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The Lawsuit that Could Overturn ObamaCare









 

 

The Lawsuit that Could Overturn ObamaCare

Posted by Ben on August 13, 2010 ·  

Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, Floyd Reports

Repeal ObamaCare

 

When Missouri voters attempted to stop ObamaCare at the ballot box via the initiative process, the national news media took notice. In the August 3 vote, 7 in 10 voters in the "Show Me State" supported Proposition C, which overturns government mandates requiring health insurance. Proposition C actually bars penalties against people who pay their own health bills without insurance.

On August 2, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled against a U.S. Justice Department request to throw out a lawsuit brought by Virginia against ObamaCare. Virginia is arguing in the lawsuit that the U.S. Congress had unconstitutionally exceeded its powers by forcing individuals to buy insurance.

Hudson wrote, "While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate — and tax — a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce…"

Hudson continues by saying there is, "some authority arguably supporting the theory underlying each side's position." Hudson's decision sets up the opportunity to have appellate and eventually the Supreme Court decide these issues.

But our personal favorite of the many lawsuits challenging ObamaCare is from Arizona. Yes, the land of immigration enforcement could also be the site of a major constitutional battle about ObamaCare. The citizens of Arizona are restless with their Washington, D.C. overseers.

The Goldwater Institute, a public policy outfit named for Arizona's most famous son, is taking a different swing at the question.

Representing a local business owner, Nick Coons of Tempe, Ariz., the Goldwater Institute has built an intriguing legal strategy which will shake up the debate: "Mr. Coons pays for all of his medical care out of his own pocket and he wants to continue making his own health care decisions. Under the federal health care bill, Mr. Coons will face significant fines from the IRS if he doesn't buy a health insurance plan that has been approved by the government by 2014."

In announcing the lawsuit Coons complained, "The government is making me spend money on something that I don't want. Is a stranger who works for the government in some other part of the country really going to know what I need? I am the best qualified to make these decisions for myself."

The Goldwater Institute's lawyer is well-known constitutional litigator Clint Bolick. Bolick argues, "The new federal law also violates Mr. Coons' medical privacy by forcing him to disclose his medical records to an insurance company, and those records could be accessed by the federal government and others without his permission."

We have always been disturbed by the arrogance of government officials that seem to believe they have a right to know the most intimate details of your discussions with your doctor. ObamaCare will violate the sanctity and privacy of the relationship you have with your physician.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution would be shocked by the manipulation we have recently experienced at the hands of Congress, Obama, and out-of-control federal judges. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sums it all up when he said of ObamaCare's attempts to regulate the behavior of doing nothing: "Even the king and the parliament acknowledged they didn't have this power back before the Declaration of Independence."

 


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The Supreme Court--Intolerant of Obama









 

 

 


July 9, 12:03 PM Conservative Examiner Anthony G. Martin
According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable. 

Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much if not all of Obama's major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government.

Obama certainly did not help himself in the eyes of the Court when he used the venue of the State of the Union address early in the year to publicly flog the Court over its ruling that the First Amendment grants the right to various organizations to run political ads during the time of an election.

The tongue-lashing clearly did not sit well with the Court, as demonstrated by Justice Sam Alito, who publicly shook his head and stated under his breath, 'That's not true,' when Obama told a flat-out lie concerning the Court's ruling. 

As it has turned out, this was a watershed moment in the relationship between the executive and the judicial branches of the federal government. Obama publicly declared war on the court, even as he blatantly continued to propose legislation that flies in the face of every known Constitutional principle upon which this nation has stood for over 200 years.

Obama has even identified Chief Justice John Roberts as his number one enemy, that is, apart from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. And it is no accident that the one swing-vote on the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, stated recently that he has no intention of retiring until 'Obama is gone.'

Apparently, the Court has had enough.

The Roberts Court has signaled, in a very subtle manner, of course, that it intends to address the issues about which Obama critics have been screaming to high heaven. A ruling against Obama on any one of these important issues could potentially cripple the Administration.

Such a thing would be long overdue.

First, there is ObamaCare, which violates the Constitutional principle barring the federal government from forcing citizens to purchase something. And no, this is not the same thing as states requiring drivers to purchase car insurance, as some of the intellectually-impaired claim. The Constitution limits FEDERAL government, not state governments, from such things, and further, not everyone has to drive, and thus, a citizen could opt not to purchase car insurance by simply deciding not to drive a vehicle.

In the ObamaCare world, however, no citizen can 'opt out.'

Second, sources state that the Roberts court has quietly accepted information concerning discrepancies in Obama's history that raise serious questions about his eligibility for the office of President. The charge goes far beyond the birth certificate issue. This information involves possible fraudulent use of a Social Security number in Connecticut , while Obama was a high school student in Hawaii . And that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Third, several cases involving possible criminal activity, conflicts of interest, and pay-for-play cronyism could potentially land many Administration officials, if not the President himself, in hot water with the Court. Frankly, in the years this writer has observed politics, nothing comes close to comparing with the rampant corruption of this Administration, not even during the Nixon years. Nixon and the Watergate conspirators look like choirboys compared to the jokers that populate this Administration.

In addition, the Court will eventually be forced to rule on the dreadful decision of the Obama DOJ to sue the state of Arizona . That, too, could send the Obama doctrine of open borders to an early grave, given that the Administration refuses to enforce federal law on illegal aliens.

And finally, the biggie that could potentially send the entire house of cards tumbling in a free-fall is the latest revelation concerning the Obama-Holder Department of Justice and its refusal to pursue the New Black Panther Party. The group is caught on tape committing felonies by attempting to intimidate Caucasian voters into staying away from the polls.

A whistle-blower who resigned from the DOJ is now charging Holder with the deliberate refusal to pursue cases against Blacks, particularly those who are involved in radical hate-groups, such as the New Black Panthers, who have been caught on tape calling for the murder of white people and their babies.

This one is a biggie that could send the entire Administration crumbling--that is, if the Justices have the guts to draw a line in the sand at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
SOURCED FROM
http://www.examiner.com/x-37620-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m7d9-Sources-say-smackdown-of-Obama-by-Supreme-Court-may-be-inevitable


 


 


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Fwd: Please vote - now

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Mexicans Resort to Clinton's Crimefighting Strategy









 

 

  •  

Mexicans resort to Clinton's crimefighting strategy

·         August 13th, 2010 8:17 pm

http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/hash/b8/7e/b87ed49f09d402b49f37fdc9b023284a.jpg

Beheadings are as common in Mexico as they are in radical Islamic regions of the world.

Photo: American Post

Mexican officials faced with growing crime and a quasi-insurgency by drug cartel thugs are seeking to replicate a program embraced by President Bill Clinton and his minions in the 1990s: a Mexican version of Midnight Basketball.

For those unfamiliar with Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill, among the multi-billion dollar, pork-barrel laced provisions was $40 million for the much-publicized midnight basketball leagues. In these leagues, each team had ten players (from areas with high percentage of kids in public housing and a high percentage of HIV positives in the population) and each league must have eight teams.

Other provisions provided $100 million for  Rep. John Conyer's "ounce of prevention program." This was free money for mayors to spend on virtually any purpose tangentially related to crime, including the building of swimming pools. Another $630 million was earmarked for "child-centered activities." This was money for arts and crafts, dance programs, recreational activities, nutrition training, and so forth.

"No matter how many times nor how aggressively congressional supporters of the crime bill tried to justify this avalanche of new social welfare spending, their efforts have proved futile: the vast majority of Americans living outside of Washington, D.C. simply don't believe that dance classes, arts and crafts programs, more education spending, and olympic swimming-sized pools are going to do much to prevent crime," said Stephan Moore of the Cato Institute during his testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee in 1995. Moore was one of many who wished the crime bill to be reformed sans the pork-barrel projects and earmarks. 

On Thursday, during a segment on Fox News Channel's top-rated Your World with Neil Cavuto, the host interviewed Arizona Republican State Senator Frank Antenori about the threat of Mexican drug gangs and Mexico's own attempt at what critics call "touchy-feely" crimefighting.

According to State Sen. Antenori,  Mexican officials and President Barack Obama's U.S. advisors have come up with a $270 million dollar program to fight the treacherous and deadly Mexican drug cartels.

The rationale for this latest anti-cartel initiative is that the thousands soldiers and cops based in Juarez, Mexico aren't effective enough to stop the bloodshed that's seeping into the United States.

However, instead of tough enforcement and increased police and military resources, the Mexican plan to solve the crime and violence epidemic is to create programs such as youth orchestras, physical fitness programs, free concerts, student breakfasts, etc.

Antenori said he is outraged and asked if there is any "wonder AZ is doing all it can to defend its borders."

"This will surely create fear and horror in these gangsters. Students doing a Mexican hat dance will stop the cartels in their tracks," quipped former New York narcotics officer Charles Santiago.

Unlike most of the Obama -- and Bill Clinton -- minions, Antenori served more than 20 years in the U.S. military and most that time in Special Forces. Most recently he served in Iraq and told Cavuto that during Operation Phantom Fury, the U.S. was able to secure Fallujah, Iraq with about the same number of soldiers.

He stated that he doesn't understand how 10,000 Mexican soldiers are unable to get these cartels under control, citing possible leadership problems in Mexico.

He also said he'd like to know "who the U.S. advisors are that advised the Mexican government to spend money on these social projects."

"We have a national security issue here and Mexico is unable to deal with this 'insurgency' of cartels within its own borders," said Antenori 

 

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc. 

 





--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Obama gives support to Ground Zero mosque during White House Ramadan feast




Obama gives support to Ground Zero mosque during White House Ramadan feast

Islamic prayers every Friday in the Capitol building. Ramadan feast Friday night at the White House. Wasn't building a shrine to conquering America mosque at Ground Zero supposed to be a local issue? Ever the opportunist, Obama chose his Islamic feast with Muslims at the White House celebrating the month of jihad to endorse the [...]

Read more of this post

Add a comment to this post


WordPress

WordPress.com | Thanks for flying with WordPress!
Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe | Express yourself. Start a blog.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://subscribe.wordpress.com


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Dining Out In The World







 







 
 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Have fun!  Let's see how smart you are!

Just click on "Dining Out In The World" below, then select your answer by clicking on the twirling utensil. It will give you the correct answer, then move to the next country. [There are 11 countries.] Its funny and hard...............

Dining Out In The World

 

=

 

  

 





 



--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The War Party's New Torchlight Parade


Thursday, August 12, 2010
The War Party's New Torchlight Parade

[]
Contrived Controversy: Protesting the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque."

The most powerful patron of radical Islam is not Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. It is the government headquartered in Washington, D.C., which for more than a half-century has diligently cultivated Islamic terrorism. Yet millions of Americans are suffering what amounts to a collective loss of bladder control over the purported threat embodied in the proposed Cordoba House -- the Islamic equivalent of a YMCA -- in New York City.

Allowing the "Ground Zero Mosque" to be built, insists Newt Gingrich, would be tantamount to "surrender" in a struggle against those implacably committed to our destruction. New York gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino, a New York crony capitalist who anointed himself a paladin of the Tea Party movement, has made opposition to the "Ground Zero Mosque" the central plank of his campaign. Paladino, who has profited handsomely from government's redistribution of wealth, promises that if elected he will confiscate the property used for the Muslim Community Center through eminent domain and use the land to erect a war memorial.

Writing in National Review, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy insists that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- the Kuwait-born U.S. citizen who leads the Cordoba Initiative -- is pursuing a "stealth jihad" as a fellow-traveler of the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Ground Zero project is a test of America's resolve to face down a civilizational jihad that that aims, in the words of its leaders, to destroy us from within," maintains McCarthy.

  []

According to Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (AFA) the problem isn't the proposal to build a Muslim cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero. Rather, it's the fact that the government ruling us permits the existence of mosques anywhere in the United States.

Since "every single mosque is a potential terror training center or recruiting center for jihad," Muslims "cannot claim First Amendment Protections," maintains Fischer (who, in addition to supporting case-specific abolition of the First Amendment, has previously called for the abolition of the habeas corpus guarantee as well).

Rather than focusing exclusively on the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, the AFA and like-minded organizations have instigated a nation-wide campaign to protest construction of Muslim houses of worship in more than a half-dozen states. Like McCarthy, Fischer treats Imam Rauf as an asset of the Muslim Brotherhood, which (according to Fischer) is "at the heart and center... the soul of Islam in America."

Here's a quick digest of the charges leveled by Fischer, which are typical of this manufactured controversy:

Islamic houses of worship serve as recruiting centers for soldiers of jihad, who will kill and die on behalf of Sharia Law. Many Islamic clerics, including Imam Feisal, are joined at the hip with the Muslim Brotherhood -- the most powerful element of the international Islamic terrorist network.

[]
Jihadist at work? Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (right).


Stipulating that those concerns are genuine, and that the proper course of action would be to target the greatest offenders first, the campaign to shut down the global jihad should target the United States Government -- and the Republican-dominated Evangelical Churches that serve as military recruiting stations for the Regime in Washington.

During the past decade, a Middle Eastern nation of roughly 30,000,000 people once ruled by a secular government succumbed to Sharia Law. The predictable results of that catastrophe included a dramatic increase in religious violence, such as the persecution of professional women whose dress and conduct are now seen as unacceptable. More than half of the Christian population of that country -- which includes congregations tracing their roots back to the original disciples -- was driven into exile.


That nation is Iraq, which suffered for decades under Washington's loathsome subcontractor Saddam Hussein before Saddam's employer decided to remove the middleman.

For a dozen years after the 1991 Gulf War -- which followed the Washington-instigated Iraqi assault on Kuwait, which itself was a sequel to the Washington-abetted Iraqi war with Iran -- the country was suffocated by a murderous embargo punctuated with the occasional terror-bombing. After being softened up for more than a decade, Iraq was invaded and occupied by U.S. troops who killed and died in order to install an Islamist government whose new constitution formally enshrines Sharia Law.

When American jingoists offer misty-eyed tributes to the soldiers who died in the course of "liberating" Iraq, it could be said that they are, in effect, praising the efforts of men and women who are martyrs to the cause of Sharia Law

This outcome is not an historical anomaly. For the past six decades, the Anglo-American elite (with Washington assuming the senior partner role after World War II) has assiduously promoted the most violent strains of revolutionary Islam, often -- but not exclusively -- as a strategic weapon in the context of the Cold War.

[]
Professional revolutionary: Afghani.

The Muslim Brotherhood -- which grew out of the late-19th Century agitation of Persian-born professional revolutionary Jamal Eddine al-Afghani -- has long been one of the Anglo-American elite's most important strategic assets, as well as the talent pool that was used to staff the deadliest terrorist network in the Muslim world.


While he was superficially the most devout and pious of Muslim believers, Al-Afghani, writes Robert Dreyfuss in his valuable book The Devil's Game, "a heterodox thinker who was a Freemason, a mystic, a political operative, and above all ... someone who believed in the `social utility of religion.'"

After serving as a Russian agent in the 1860s, Afghani defected to the British. He was in London's employ when he made a disciple of an Egyptian Sugist named Mohammed Abduh.


During the 1870s, Afghani and Abduh used Cairo's storied Al-Azhar mosque as a recruiting center for a revolutionary network, which gathered cadres from throughout the Middle East and Europe. Afghani also founded a lodge of his Arab Masonic society, which became the headquarters of what Egyptian police called "young Thugs" -- a description invoking India's notorious Thugee Cult, an oath-bound fraternity of murderers.


When Afghani was eventually expelled from Egypt, his disciple Abduh remained, eventually rising to become the nation's Mufti (supreme interpreter of Islamic law) in 1899. Like his mentor, Abduh considered revolution to be his religion, and the Islamic faith to be a vessel for his political ambitions. Among those who fell under Abduh's influence was Hassan Al-Banna, the schoolteacher who gave tangible form to Abduh's revolutionary designs by founding the Ikhwan al-Mulimeen (Islamic Brotherhood) in 1928.


[]
Disciple and organizer: Abduh.


Reflecting the influence of Afghani and Abduh, Banna organized the Brotherhood into cells (called "families") of five to seven members.


The Brotherhood "was more than a movement," writes Dreyfuss. "It was a cult, it was a revivalist party, it was an intelligence operation, it was a paramilitary unit, and it was an international organization that was rapidly building branches in many Middle Eastern countries." During World War II, Dreyfuss continues, Brotherhood cadres were recruited by British, Nazi, and Soviet intelligence agencies.



"In the eastern regions of the Soviet empire, where the Nazis were more interested in oil than ethnic cleansing, the Third Reich mobilized Muslims and other ethnic minorities to fight for the liberation of their homelands," writes Eliza Griswold in The New Republic, summarizing the findings in Ian Johnson's recent book A Mosque in Munich. "The Nazis plucked Muslims from German prisoner-of-war camps; some Muslims became German soldiers, members of the SS; some, professional propagandists.... Once World War II ended, many of these men, stuck in Germany and having lost their homelands, found a new employer: the United States."



[]
Brotherhood founder al-Banna.

A CIA-created propaganda arm called Radio Liberty employed "many of these former Nazi sympathizers," Griswold points out. In 1953 -- the same year the CIA and MI6, working through a network of Islamic radicals, brought down the Iranian government of Mohammed Mossadegh -- the White House hosted 27-year-old Said Ramadan, the Muslim Brotherhood's chief international organizer in addition to being son-in-law to Hassan al-Banna's son-in-law, who had been assassinated in 1949.



In subsequent years, many adherents of the Brotherhood -- including former Nazi sympathizers who worked with the CIA -- affiliated with the Al-Quds Mosque in Munich. Among them was Mahmoud Abouhalima, a Brotherhood member who became a leader in the CIA-funded Afghan mujahadeen and later played a prominent role in the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Abouhalima, who spent the late 1980s networking with radicals among American Muslims, sponsored the 1990 visit of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, later convicted of "seditious conspiracy" in the 1993 WTC attack. Despite being on a State Department terrorist watch list, Sheik Omar was granted a visa at the U.S. consulate in Khartoum: As something other than coincidence had it, the CIA station chief personally attended to the matter by substituting for the consular official who was usually in charge of issuing visas.




[]
Ike and Ikhwan: Brotherhood leader Said Ramadan is at the far right, holding papers.

Like practically everyone else involved in the 1993 WTC plot, Omar had also been an asset of the U.S. Government.  The same is true of former U.S. Army Special Forces Captain Ali Mohammed, who -- according to investigators -- most likely "called the shots" in the bombing conspiracy. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- that fact, Mohammed went on to become a "privileged asset" of the FBI.

In 2001, Mohammed pleaded guilty -- "in exchange for considerations" -- to charges arising from the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. He then disappeared into the witness protection program, where he remains to this day.


The extent to which the Muslim Brotherhood is (in Bryan Fischer's phrase) "the soul of Islam in America" reflects the tireless efforts of our rulers to nurture radical Islam as a strategic asset -- both for prosecuting war abroad and making war on us at home by terrorizing us into supporting its corrupt, needlessly bellicose foreign policy.


In his eagerness to strip American citizens who profess the Muslim religion of their rights, Bryan Fischer offers an analogy to the recent arrest of the so-called Hutaree Militia in Michigan on charges of seditious conspiracy.  "The fact that they were a Christian militia did not stop them from being locked up," Fischer told an interviewer.


Had his research into the Hutaree case been more exhaustive than scanning headlines, Fischer may have discovered that the rapidly disintegrating case against that group was built entirely on the claims made by an informant-provocateur employed by the FBI. The same is true of practically every recent "terrorism" case involving American Muslims.


If there is reason to be suspicious of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, it would not be his sensible criticism of Washington's foreign policy; instead, it would be his willingness to cooperate with the FBI, which seems more interested in manufacturing "terrorist plots" than interdicting them.

Not having access to his unspoken plans and motives, I cannot say whether Imam Rauf is sincere or duplicitous in his efforts to encourage mutual respect and understanding among people of different faiths. However, I am impressed by the answer he gave in 2006 when asked what his "Ramadan wish" would be for the world:


"[I would wish that] we would remember that the two greatest commandments that God gave us through the mouths of his many prophets and messengers, including Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed  -- to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbors. It also means do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. If that can be the criterion of our foreign policy, I guarantee you that our foreign policy will be successful and wildly popular."

As the treatment given to its Author demonstrates, preaching the Golden Rule will always provoke the murderous hostility of the ruling elite.  Apparently, the last thing many American Christians can abide is the spectacle of an American Muslim leader who -- whatever else he may be up to -- insists that we abide by the central moral tenet of the Christian faith.


http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2010/08/war-partys-new-torchlight-parade.html

A Double-Dip Recession

"First, who are "we"? Congress? Second, did the 2009 stimulus of $787 billion focus on creating jobs? If so, where are they? Third, how does Federal spending create jobs? Hiring part-time census workers, yes. Creating a few thousand "shovel-ready" make-work jobs that cost small fortunes per job, yes. But sustained job recovery? It isn't happening."

A Double-Dip Recession
by Gary North

Promoting a revamped Keynesian economic theory – one without any guarantee of job growth – is the equivalent of selling a lifetime subscription to a revamped Playboy: one without any photos. It's a tough sell. Yet this is what Keynesians are facing today. This will be fun to watch.

In the last few days, we have begun to see reports from mainstream Keynesian forecasters and economists who are talking about the possibility of a double-dip recession.

For a year, we have been assured by experts that double-dip recessions are rare. They surely are. The last one was in Carter's final year, 1980 – which is why it was his final year – and Reagan's first year, 1981. As far as the National Bureau of Economic Research has reported, that was the only double-dip recession. The NBER is the unofficial arbiter of each recession's chronology.

A few forecasters a year ago predicted the ever-popular V-shaped economic recovery. They are all hoping that no one remembers. There is no one left standing who predicts anything like this. The economy has barely grown over the last year, and the most recent report from the government is that growth was slower than initially reported for the second quarter of this year.

This remains the mainstream consensus: no double-dip recession, but weak economic growth and slow job growth. A few forecasters have said that unemployment will in fact increase. I have, but I am not in the mainstream.

The mainstream says that we are in a jobless recovery. But this assessment does not convey the uniqueness of the last 12 months. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has posted an interactive chart that lets us compare the job non-recovery of the recession that began in late 2007 with all of the post-World War II recessions. We can click a box and get a different colored line for each recession-recovery. Only the double-dip recession of 1980–81 was worse in terms of the duration of unemployment.

In another sense, we are in the mother of all jobless recoveries: median unemployment longer than 27 weeks. As of July 2010, the number of unemployed Americans was 14.6 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of these, 45% had been unemployed for over 27 weeks: 6.6 million people. This figure is unprecedented. Remember also that "unemployed" refers to people without jobs who are still looking for jobs. Those who give up and stop looking are no longer counted as unemployed.

Until the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve System's Federal Open Market Committee, the press releases began with an affirmation of the increasing strength of the economy – slow but visible. The press release for August 10 began with this uncharacteristic pessimism: "Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June indicates that the pace of recovery in output and employment has slowed in recent months."

In response to this intra-day press release, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from a negative 120 to a negative 55, as the result of a meaningless statement that the FOMC will re-invest net payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds in Treasury bonds. This meant, at best, no change in the monetary base. The media greeted this as a major change in FED policy. It wasn't. The next day, the Dow fell 265 points.


SEEDS OF DOUBT

The financial media are beginning to report statements from Establishment forecasters who are saying that a double-dip recession is looking more likely. One of the most prominent of them is Yale economist Robert Shiller. He is the co-creator of the Case-Shiller monthly report on the residential housing prices in 20 American cities. He also coined the phrase "irrational exuberance." He now thinks the odds favoring a double dip are above 50–50. He says that the job market is the problem.

He is a Keynesian. So, he calls on Congress to spend lots more money on another deficit-funded stimulus. He says that the Federal Reserve is "out of bullets." Economists rarely say this about the FED. When they do, it indicates near-panic. He assures us that "If we focus on creating jobs, it's not as expensive as you might think."

First, who are "we"? Congress? Second, did the 2009 stimulus of $787 billion focus on creating jobs? If so, where are they? Third, how does Federal spending create jobs? Hiring part-time census workers, yes. Creating a few thousand "shovel-ready" make-work jobs that cost small fortunes per job, yes. But sustained job recovery? It isn't happening.

David Stockman, who was briefly Reagan's budget director before he resigned, recently wrote an article on the gargantuan size of the Federal deficit. He made an important but neglected observation. Ever since the third quarter of 2008, the nation's nominal GDP has increased by a tiny $100 billion, but the Federal debt has increased by 25 times the GDP increase.

This means that the hoped-for stimulus has not worked. It has taken $25 of Federal deficits to produce $1 of GDP growth. This marks a major anomaly for Keynesian economic theory. The justification for government deficits in Keynesian theory is that government spending restores economic growth. Money spent by the private sector does not increase economic growth in a recession; government spending does. This has never made any economic sense, but now the non-response of the economy is exposing this original nonsense for what it always was: nonsense. The Federal deficit is skyrocketing, but the economy has barely increased, statistically speaking, and is now slowing.

Lest we forget, the NBER committee which retroactively determines when a recession began and ended met in early April. The committee postponed an announcement regarding the end of the recession which it said began in December 2007. Such an announcement, the committee said, would be "premature."

This indicated that the economic data were so mixed that no clear recovery is evident. The Federal Reserve and other organizations have adopted spring 2009 as the end of the recession. This appears on Federal Reserve charts. But the organization that is unofficially the arbiter of such matters is not equally confident.

At this point, the conventional forecast regarding a double-dip recession is that it is unlikely to happen. In contrast, the Austrian School view is that the recovery itself may turn out to have been a statistical anomaly. We are not facing a double-dip recession, only because we have not gotten out of the 2007 recession. We are now facing a more rapid decline of an economy already in decline.

The statistics so far do not point to a full-scale recovery. This was the NBER committee's view in April. The statistics point to something unique: a supposed economic recovery in which commercial banks are reducing their lending, the overnight bank loan rate is close to zero, and long-term unemployment is at an historically high level. To produce this minimal recovery, if it really is a recovery, the Federal government is running a 2010 deficit in the $1.5 trillion range. Meanwhile, Social Security payments now exceed FICA tax revenue, so the general fund must make up the difference, thus adding to the on-budget deficit. Social Security has ceased to be an accounting cash cow for the government. It has become an accounting liability.

Rex Nutting writes for MarketWatch. He is not a famous economist. He is a columnist who spends his life summarizing economic events and data that come in over the wires. But, on August 11, when the Dow opened down by over 200 points and was not rebounding, he wrote an editorial. It reveals the despair of a Keynesian whose confidence in the restoration of economic growth has faded.

The Federal Reserve is pushing on a string, he said. It has gone about as far as it can go. It is therefore time for Congress to reassert leadership. Nutting has had great hope in the creativity of government spending. The government can borrow trillions of dollars, which can be spent by Civil Service-protected government bureaucrats who cannot be fired. His faith is fading. An overly conservative Congress is just too cautious and reluctant to spend more money, he thinks.
It doesn't take a poet to know what happens to a dream deferred. Sometimes, it explodes. If the Fed's hands are tied, are we doomed to a lost decade of deferred dreams?
Happily, no. There is one group that's still able to borrow: the federal government, which could fill the gap temporarily by directly employing idle people to fulfill some of those deferred dreams. They could teach the children, heal the sick, build the infrastructure, discover new drugs, and invent new technologies.
Unhappily, it's not going to happen.

The projected Federal deficits are in the range of a trillion dollars a year for the next decade. Not enough! Too cautious! Woe, woe, woe!

The optimists are saying that the double-dip recession will not happen, but job growth will be minimal. A jobless recovery is the new normal. This is the abandonment of Keynesianism. This is loss of faith on a paradigm-changing scope. The old Keynesian formula is no longer working. Huge deficits have not led to a V-shaped recovery, or maybe any recovery. The Keynesian multiplier is barely even adding. The Federal Reserve is pushing on a string. But so is Congress. The deficits are not working.

What's a Keynesian to do?

Call for more spending, of course. Call for even larger Federal deficits. Call for bailouts of deficit-plagued state governments, which cannot get loans from Asian central banks.


THE KEYNESIANS' FAITH

The Keynesians have only one solution: deficit spending. That is all they have had since 1936. Keynes baptized deficit-spending policies that all governments had begun several years before. He was John the Baptist for his generation. He called on old school economists to repent and be baptized in the logic of deficits. He converted most of the young economists. The old ones slowly died off, although some of them saw the error of their youth and converted.

But today the old Keynesian deficit-spending policy is no longer delivering the promised goods. The old formulas are not providing the old magic. The level of Federal debt is so great today that the percentage of each new annual deficit in relation to the total debt that has to be rolled over every five years is declining. Deficits no longer have the same "punch."

In fact, the old punch had to do with transferring resources from the private sector to the government sector. This transfer made the government sector grow and the private sector contract, compared to what would otherwise have prevailed. Government spending is counted as being the same as private spending. Government spending is considered part of the GDP. Keynesians assume that money collected by means of badges and guns is far more efficient in producing economic growth than money invested in terms of a hoped-for prospect of a positive rate of return. Keynesianism rests on faith in the following:
1. Badges and guns
2. Government IOUs
3. The wisdom of government

It is based on a lack of faith in the following:
1. Voluntary exchange
2. Private investment
3. The wisdom of entrepreneurship

We are now seeing the fruits of this view of economics. The deficits, while unprecedented, represent a declining percentage of the IOUs outstanding, both to investors and the Social Security, Medicare, and Federal pension "trust funds": accounting devices that count government IOUs as legal claims against future taxpayers. Each new deficit adds to this pile of IOUs. No one in the Establishment expects these to be paid off. Everyone expects these debts to be rolled over at low interest rates forever. There is no sense of alarm.

The Tea Party voters are beginning to sense that this is an impossible dream. Yet voters who are approaching age 65 also believe that they have a legal claim on lifetime support. They believe that these claims will be met. They believe that, since they are special, the Federal government can and will deliver on its promises to them. In short, they know they are being conned, yet they insist that the retirement Ponzi schemes will go on forever. In short, tens of millions of voters are schizophrenic.

Two groups of voters are not schizophrenic: the optimists and the pessimists. The optimists think that the promises will be kept, the Federal government can be relied on, and the system will hold. The pessimists believe that the promises will be broken, they will be stiffed in their old age, and the government is headed for a huge default.

Presumably, you are in the second group. Therefore, you are not a Keynesian. You do not believe that endless Federal deficits can continue. You do not believe that deficits will save the economy.

This raises a question: What are you doing to hedge your future against the optimists and the schizophrenics, who will resist any major spending cuts?


RUNNING OUT OF TIME

The Democrats are likely to lose control in the House next year. Their ten-vote edge in the Senate will disappear. Republicans will be able to filibuster any spending bill. This will end House Democrats' hope that voting in favor of a new spending program will get through the Senate. They will ask: "Why risk my slender base back home on a suicide vote to increase spending? If it passes, it will be killed in the Senate."

The Republicans will play the spoiler. Obama will get no new big spending programs passed by Congress. He will be able to blame Congress, just as he has blamed Bush. But if the economy does not visibly recover, and if the unemployment rate does not fall below 6%, he will take the heat. That is what the Presidency is for: taking credit or taking blame.

The government will move to gridlock next year. It will remain there for two years. The deficits will remain high. The economy will stagnate at best, or fall into a decline. There will be no major recovery that persuades voters that they are safe, that the economic future is bright.

We are seeing a loss of faith. It is all-pervasive. The voters see that Congress is impotent. The Keynesians see that the FED is impotent. The economists as a profession have rushed to the Keynesian pump to keep the ship from sinking, but the ship appears to be taking on water despite their best efforts.

Gridlock will end the prospects for a new round of spending. The Republicans will be busy campaigning for 2012. They will hold the line against major new spending projects. The deficits will continue, but the Republicans will blame Obama, the way that Obama blames Bush. "Obama saddled us with these deficits. We did not have the votes to stop him. Now we do. You can't hold us responsible for what Pelosi and Obama did." The voters, always disappointed, will respond in hope.

You can see why I have registered this domain:  www.ChangeBack2012.com


CONCLUSION

"Double dips sink ships." The prospect of a double-dip recession threatens the Keynesians, just as it threatens Obama's hopes for re-election.

The Keynesians have far more at stake. Obama is limited to two terms by law. The Keynesians must keep the faith in deficits alive permanently. If their policy prescription fails, and the deficits accelerate without job growth and income growth, then they have no fall-back position. They can tell us that in the long run, the deficits will finally turn the economy back up, and things will go back to the pre-2007 normal. But if things do not return to the pre-2007 normal, then non-Keynesians will cite Keynes in their defense: "In the long run, we are all dead."

So is Federal solvency.

www.garynorth.com